It is common practice in the field of measuring properties or characteristics of liquid streams to extract a sample of the stream and then proceeding to analyze it in a laboratory. Other approaches used such as in monitoring of water streams for oil detection, e.g. ballast water monitoring onboard tankers, rely on a variety of different techniques and systems such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,710,111; 3,612,887; and 3,581,085.
Other prior art typical of this area include systems such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,892,378, which employs an indicating turbidimeter for detecting and measuring the turbidity of a fluid or U.S. Pat. No. 3,306,157 which also discloses a turbidimeter for sensing turbidity of a continuously-flowing fluid sample, wherein light rays project through a lens into the liquid under test and the intensities of the projected beam are reflected to photocells which provide an indication of the turbidity. Still yet a further prior art patent is that of U.S. Pat. No. 3,617,757 wherein light rays are projected through a liquid undergoing test which is received by a photocell for providing an indication of characteristic of liquid. Further prior art located in respect of the invention include the following U.S. patents:
U.s. pat. No. 3,246,145--Higgins PA1 U.s. pat. No. 3,659,943--Goolsby PA1 U.s. pat. No. 3,714,444--Carr et al. PA1 U.s. pat. No. 3,734,629--Griffiths et al. PA1 U.s. pat. No. 3,885,418--Kriebel